Monthly Archives: September 2015

Children with grandmothers who smoked have an increased risk of asthma even when mothers did not smoke, according to new findings. The new study is the first to investigate the risk in a whole population and use evidence about smoking habits taken directly from grandmothers at the time they were pregnant.

Implementing a home-based volunteer counselling strategy during pregnancy and the first few days of an infant’s life in rural Africa may not be enough to improve neonatal survival, despite improvements in childbirth in health facilities and newborn care practices, according to new research.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists advance understanding of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, a liver disorder that leaves infants born to affected mothers at risk for severe respiratory distress

From melting glaciers to increasing wildfires, the consequences of climate change and strategies to mitigate such consequences are often a hotly debated topic. A new study adds to the ever-growing list of negative impacts climate change can have on humans–low birth weight.

A new drug may be more effective at preventing malaria in pregnant woman, especially where there is resistance to the current treatments, scientists report. Malaria infection during pregnancy is a significant health problem to both the mother and the unborn child. It has been associated with chronic anemia in the mother, and with loss of the pregnancy due to miscarriages or stillbirths and with low birth weight in pregnancies that result in livebirths, which in turn results in an increased risk of infant death.

In many countries, caesarean section is routinely used if the woman previously gave birth by caesarean section. Doctors and midwives in countries with a high rate of vaginal births after caesarean sections have for the first time been asked in a study to give their views on how to increase the percentage of vaginal births.

Pregnant women with systemic lupus erythematosus, are at higher risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preeclampsia, placental insufficiency, fetal death, miscarriages, and other complications. A consortium of top researchers reports that monitoring specific angiogenic biomarkers in maternal blood during early pregnancy can successfully predict patients who will likely have normal pregnancies and those at high risk for adverse outcomes. This will enable physicians to identify, counsel, and manage high risk patients at an early stage of pregnancy.

As obesity rates for pregnant women continue to climb, scientists have discovered that increasing a specific hormone during pregnancy can reduce or eliminate the chances that the baby will become obese as well.